Since U Been Gone
by That'sJustHowTheStoryUnfolds-x
Summary: Michael Byrne hasn't seen his family since his fiancé, Lorraine supposedly walked out on him with their daughter? When she turns back up three years later, will the truth finally reveal itself? What will happen to their relationship, will it be rekindle? Or will his new fiancé, Sian put a stop to anything that's already happened? Michael/Lorraine


Prologue: Three Years Ago Today

"Hurry up! Do it! Write that note!" the voice of an angry kidnapper rang down Lorraine's eardrums. She could see Millie, her daughter straight in front of her, she could see right into those ocean blue eyes, the ones that were pleading her to do it, pleading for her to write the note to her father. She could see the fear in her daughter's eyes, the man behind her, brandishing a gun out from his pocket, and carefully placing it to the young girl's temple, slowly enough for Lorraine to think over the consequences if she didn't write that note. She could see straight into the gunman's eyes, the anger in them, but she could see through the tough exterior, into the emotions racing one hundred miles per minute around his body, the emotions that were pleading for her to do it, the feelings showing that he didn't want to have to become a murderer, how he didn't want to shoot the girl sat directly in front of her.

Lorraine took a moment to review her thoughts; she desperately wanted to see Michael, her handsome fiancé, one last time, she didn't want him to turn up at the altar the following day, expecting her to turn up for her wedding, slowly walking down the aisle, dressed up fancy in her pure white dressing gown, all her hair and make-up previously done, waiting to become Mrs Donegan-Byrne. On the other hand, though, she knew that she wouldn't be able to live with the ghost of her only child, Millie, forever on her conscience. She carefully weighed up the two options; she knew she could be forgiven for writing the note, if anything had the misfortune to happen to her, the police could tell Michael, but if anything happened to Millie, because of her, nothing would be able to shift the guilt onto somebody else's shoulders. "Okay... I'll write the note... On one condition..."

"What?"The gunman behind her beloved daughter's head growled. "What do you want?"

"I want my daughter to be safe... If I write it, I want her to be unharmed... He won't know where we go, he won't have the guts to come looking for us once I've written this, he'll be too caught up in my web of lies to even notice that we're gone."

"Good. At least we've got _some _co-operation established between us," was the answer she received. She saw the relief flicker in his eyes before they turned stone cold again, and she began to write the note to her fiancé.

* * *

Michael walked into the family home, expecting to find the home that he shared with his fiancé, Lorraine and their daughter, Millie, empty, and void of any existence. It was the night before his wedding to his beautiful, blonde bombshell of a fiancé, Lorraine, a girl he had met whilst she was in her last year of sixth form, and him just beginning his second year at Oxford University, training to become a teacher.

He first clasped eyes on her in her lesson, him teaching that lesson whilst on work experience, attempting to get through a school term length of work experience lessons. He scanned over her ravishing beauty, her perfectly symmetrical face, her golden hair glistening in the sunlight, her body perfectly filled out in all of the right places. He was only two and a half years her senior, and it was only her and some of her closest friends that had already signed up for business studies that actually came to his lessons, though they spent most of the time talking about their jobs and upcoming interviews. It was only them people that truly made something of their lives because of their education, and he was proud to be a part of that, though never really their teacher, only being there to complete his course.

Both Michael and Lorraine had been aware of their growing feelings for each other from the very beginning, often her staying at his almost every day, and the pair of them meeting each other in the school showers whenever neither of them had a class that day. Despite them not being able to get enough of each other, the young couple had to be wary of any staff at the school, the disapproval that they would be faced with would be too much for either of them to cope with, and the law would force them apart, regardless of their feelings for each other. All that he had to do was waiting for her to finish this academic year, which ended in a month, when she finally graduated from the shoddy sixth form.

When her graduation from the sixth form finally came around, Lorraine was nearly nineteen and it had turned out that she was also three months pregnant with her first child, but her baby bump was barely noticeable. Around five months later, when she was nineteen, she gave birth to her healthy six pound five ounces baby girl, Millie Rose Donegan-Byrne. Lorraine's parents refused to speak to their daughter after the birth of Millie, prompting Lorraine and Michael to buy the current £1million family home, mostly being paid by Lorraine's keepings from her call centres. It was quite large, three stories high, with large, spacious rooms and eight picturesque acres of land, all features attracting the young couple to it, them eventually buying the property.

As the years grew on, Millie grew older, developing Lorraine's facial structure, and Michael's eyes, looking the spitting image of Lorraine as a child. The young couple loved watching their child as she progressed through life, and although Michael was the head of a local school, and Lorraine owning multiple companies, both set aside their time for their daughter, supporting Millie in as she grew up in front of their eyes. Millie was set to be Lorraine's bridesmaid the next day, along with five of Lorraine's closest friends, Callie, Lydia, Brianna, Marie and Louise, along with Callie, Marie and Brianna's daughters. He looked forward to seeing his blushing bride walk down the aisle, following his daughter.

Michael walked through the front door, surprised to find it unusually unlocked, and immediately walked through to the living room, instantly seeing a trail of crimson on the cream carpet, fresh blood in spotted trails, leading to the back door, which was left open, with a note left on the nearby breakfast bar. He knew that something had happened here earlier, he could smell Lorraine's signature perfume, Chanel, wafting through the usually neat and tidy kitchen, a strong sign that the blood on the floor may well have possibly been hers or Millie's. He took out his mobile, ready to call the police, ready to do all that it would take to find his family once more. He wouldn't wish the feeling of losing his whole reason for existence on anybody, not the cold-blooded murderers in jail, nor the locked up paedophiles that attacked vulnerable school children on a daily basis. Michael didn't want revenge for what he hoped had not happened in his home, he didn't want to kill whoever had done this; he just wanted to find his family again.

He leaned against the countertop; ready to dial 999, when his mind drifted back to the image he first saw when he followed the blood trail. He could feel salty drops dripping down his face, making tracks from his eyes, showing the world that he wasn't cold, that he had emotions like everybody else, that the love he felt for his family was real. He forced himself to pick up the note on the breakfast bar. The blood smeared paper read:

_Dear Michael,_

_I wanted to write this note so that you didn't look like a fool tomorrow, I didn't want you to turn up without you knowing what would happen. I guess you think that it will just go like a normal wedding, my bridesmaids walk down the aisle; I simply follow them, all I have to do is smile, to enjoy the moment. But you thought wrong. I guess you think that the priest would just say his piece, we both say "I do", we kiss, and then we're the perfect little family, me, you and Millie. But you thought wrong again. I bet you thought that we would go off on our honeymoon, leave Millie with Sonya, and live happily ever after. But you thought wrong yet again. _

_You need to know that we won't be living "happily ever after", that we won't be going on a honeymoon any time soon, that I won't be gliding down the aisle after my bridesmaids, that I won't be there tomorrow, that there won't be a wedding. This was going to happen anyway, I was going to do it tomorrow, but I've had enough. And so has Millie. We were going to leave sooner or later, the act that we have been putting on has been leaving you pretty fooled; you think that I'm head over heels in love with you (which I'm not) , that Millie loves you as if you're her dad (which you're not), and all this time you've been blind to the real us. _

_The fact is, I don't love you, Millie's my boyfriend's baby, the one I've been seeing as soon as you went out to work, all three of us absolutely had you, and we're getting married next month. We aren't taking anything with us, I don't want to have the bad memories, and neither does Millie, we're moving in to his place. Don't come looking for us, we don't ever want to see you again, we will be the perfect family unit after you've gone. Sell all of my belongings, and give the money to Sonya; she deserves paying after keeping my secret all of these years. Don't come looking for us, or I swear, I really will kill you, once and for all._

_Lorraine_

The tears wouldn't stop making tracks down Michael's face as he read the blood stained letter, it explained everything crystal clear, and if Lorraine didn't want him to search for her and her daughter Millie, he wouldn't. There was only one person who could help him now, so he took out his phone once again, and dialled the number he wanted, ready to speak to her once again. "Hello, Sian, is that you? I need your help..."

**Thanks for reading this and if you liked it, leave a review. I hope you enjoyed it. I don't own Waterloo Road, Since U Been Gone by Kelly Clarkson or Three Years Ago Today by Built to Spill, which both the story and chapter are named after.**

**Charlotte X**


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